Dear Tiffany,

Would you like to have another discussion about the church?

The Kingdom of God is supposed to be so incredibly counter culture… why does the American church feel it needs to wear a costume of culture to be noticed?

Thanks,
Grace

When church sticks with you…

“Did you know when feel hungry you’re usually just thirsty?” ~ Joel.
“And by the time you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.” ~ Grace.
“And when you’re dehydrated, you’re already dead.” ~ Luke.

Haha.

I don’t know if this memory from spring break can be manipulated into any kind of spiritual metaphor, but did make me smile when I thought of it just now

There is an actual point to this entry. It goes like this: almost every Sunday I go to church and hear a great message, enjoy worship, and oftentimes because our congregation is spiritually sensitive someone will have a word of prophesy. All these things help me grow in the Lord from week to week, however most Sundays while the fruit of the service nurtures my spiritual life, what I actually ate does not stick with me. Church doesn’t usually stick with me.

But sometimes it does. For example, I heard a sermon this summer entitled “Where is God in suffering?” (or something like that) which has stuck with me for months. I often think about it and share that sermon with others.

One day in church, maybe back in November, a woman at my church in Minneapolis had a vision that she shared with the church. She said that she saw a person fighting with a bull. The person thought they had the bull by the horns, but instead the bull really had them. It was a metaphor for sin in our life. We may think we are just flirting with a small sin but we have it under control, but in reality we are opening up our lives and allowing satan to build a stronghold. We may think we are controlling satan but in reality, he is controlling us.

That thought has stayed with me. Every time I catch myself flirting with sin, thinking that I am the one in control… the “I can stop anytime I want to” attitude… I remember this vision. It has kept me from going down the wrong path many times in the past few months. I hope it encourages you too!

Missions

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about missions work and cultural relativism. In the past, Christians went to a new area and converted people to Christianity. Great. Except, it wasn’t Christianity that was brought, but American Christianity. I was reading about a man, Ricci, who was a missionary in China hundreds of years ago. He brought the gospel, not his European Catholicism. He did not try to convert Chinese into being European Catholics. He wanted them to be Chinese Catholics. Unfortunately, the Vat didn’t agree and Ricci’s mission was ended. In the book I am reading (All Saints by Robert Ellsberg), Ellsberg says the Vat’s understanding of missions was “When in China, do as the Romans do.”

Cultural relativism states, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Post-modernism, in a sense. I don’t believe that good missions/evangelism follows either of these sayings. Chinese shouldn’t become Romans, but culture doesn’t rule over God either.

The way I am starting to see missions is this: “When in China, do as Paul did.” Paul brought the gospel without circumcision. As Dr. B would say, that’s cutting edge theology.

Servant Leadership

I am reading a book called Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders. Even though I was told before I started reading that it was the best book on leadership, I still wasn’t expecting much. I don’t tend to put a lot of effort into reading (which is an area that I need to grow in), so I don’t get a lot out of books.

So, it’s kind of ironic that the first idea that really grabbed me caught my attention because I misread while skimming. At the end of the second chapter, Sanders quotes(?) a poem which goes like this:

Because we children of Adam want to become great, He became small.
Because we will not stoop, He humbled Himself.
Because we want to rule, He came to serve.

I have heard over and over and read book after book about how Jesus was a servant leader. I memorized Mark 10 in Missionettes. I’ll bet that the North Central student body collectively has heard so many lectures and sermons about how Jesus modeled servant leadership while He was on Earth that we could write our own textbooks ten times over for our Leadership Development class (aka “How Jesus was a Servant Leader and Why You Should be Too”). But I have always studied about how Jesus servant-led on Earth 2,000 years ago. Jesus was a servant leader. “Because we want to rule, He came to serve.”

Yesterday I was reading too fast over the poem and misread it. Instead of past tense, I read it in present tense: “Because we want to rule, He comes to serve.” (Try to forget for a minute that Jesus is not currently “coming” anywhere but is in Heaven for the time being.) Reading the tense wrong made me realize this: Jesus is still my servant leader.

When I’m having a bad day, He serves me by listening to me cry and comforting me. He tells me how much He loves me in the most intimate of ways. Because I sin, He is in constant intercession on my behalf with the Father. When I am happy, He rejoices with me. When I feel unusable, He washes my feet. It is incredible to think that He- JESUS! – leads me by serving me! I don’t believe this because I think I deserve these actions from Jesus. I know I don’t deserve it, but He thinks I’m worth it. What a humbling thought. What an incredible Savior we have! The One who created the entire universe could rule with cruelty and harsh control, but with the absolute power that He possesses He chooses to rule by continually giving of Himself for us.

The cross was only once- but His devotion to us is eternal.

How could I not follow His lead?

A New Year

About an hour ago, NCU had it’s first chapel service of the new year. I love chapel and I love Dr. Anderson and, almost equally, I love the actual sanctuary room. That might sound strange but last September when a string of prayer meetings and prayer walks took place unexpectedly, I found my place to be sitting at His feet in the Sanctuary when everyone else dispersed to pray. The Sanctuary is my (along with thousands of others over the year’s) meeting place with God.

There is so much in the Bible to learn and to live by that I often lose my focus. So, every time I begin a new chapter of my life I ask God for a few words and concepts to concentrate on. Before I arrived at Allison Park Church for my internship, God told me to keep a positive attitude and never complain. Looking back on the summer I laugh because there could not have been two more fitting commands for Him to tell me. I think all the other APC interns who are reading this can say “Amen” to that lol. I have not perfected these values – far from it, actually. There are days when trying to live as peacefully as possibly leaves me crying at night from exhaustion. I know that can’t be right… I’m still working on what God told me three months ago.

But with a new school year starting up, God has given me four new words: Clarity, Freedom, Grace, and Healing. Hopefully as the year progresses, I will be able to write about what these four words look like in my life, on my floor, in the lives of others, and in areas I don’t even know about yet.

Unity

Ephesians 4:3-6: Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

In March, I went on a missions trip to Japan. It was an amazing experience and I had an awesome team of people I went with. Before I tell the story that goes along with the verse above, I just want to clarify – I love my ninedays Japan team!

Okay, story time: About half way through the trip, one of the team members said something mean to me and I was really hurt by it. It almost ruined my entire day. Have you ever gotten upset by someone and spent hours thinking about what you should have said back, or crafting the perfect insult, or just sulking? That was me. I remember a few hours later I was still really bothered by what this person had said. I was walking on a train platform (which is what we did 25% of the time in Japan lol) and I actually asked the Lord, “Would it be okay if I didn’t talk to this person for the rest of the day?” Believe it or not, I actually expected God to say, “Yes. That person was wrong. You don’t have to talk to them.” Instead, He asked me a question.

“Is this petty argument worth sacrificing your greatest weapon?”

I knew He was talking about our unity. As the Body of Christ, it is so important that we stay unified. Once we start becoming divided, whether it be by actions that hurt, words someone said, or simple thoughts against one another in our minds, we cannot be an effective church. Think of an army (which is what we are). How effective would an army be if they were divided in battle?

It was hard for me to forgive the person who hurt me that day but in the end I knew that the silly words they hurt me with and my hurt feelings were NOT WORTH sacrificing our unity over! It is a challenge in my own life to quickly forgive and not let hurt feelings turn to anger or bitterness. But honestly, is there anything that is important enough to hand over our weapons to the enemy?

Nope!

Habakkuk

Thoughts that were on my mind today:

One of the last things I did last night before I went to bed was write my first post which ended with a blurb about Habakkuk. It got me thinking all night and all day about why I love this book. It answers a question that I hear people ask all the time: Why do bad things happen to good people?

Habakkuk is living between the times: the sin has been committed by the people and the punishment is soon coming (to paraphrase good ol’ Stuart). Habakkuk laments to the Lord that He is not being the just God He claims to be – why can’t He hurry up and punish the wicked? God answers: He will punish but not only the wicked. All the people will be devastated by the up and coming enemy – the Babylonians. Habakkuk, of course, laments again. At the end of ch.1 he climbs a watch tower and pouts. Why are bad things going to happen to good people? (Ah, the downside of being prophetic. Knowing life is going to suck beforehand.)

The Lord answers Habakkuk in 2:4. Yes, the minority of upright people will be punished for the sins of the wicked. That’s just how it is gonna be. Get over it. But wicked will fall and the righteous will live despite the hardships that will come their way. The key is to stay faithful, to continue to follow God through the bad times. He will give His faithful ones abundant life. What a wonderful promise to stand on!

Habakkuk writes a beautiful psalm in ch. 3 that ends with his declaration that he will remain faithful to the Lord no matter what he must face. “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Hab 3:18). What a beautiful thought! What if we all had this attitude of surrender, of faith, and of trust? What if I desired my Lord so much that an advancing army would not phase me?

Lord, create it in me.